CNN’s Freeman: Harvard Pres. Did Have to Fix Work, But Attacks Started from Right Against ‘First Black Woman’ Pres.

On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” CNN Correspondent Danny Freeman reported on plagiarism allegations against Harvard President Claudine Gay and noted that while a Harvard spokesperson told CNN Gay plans to update her work, the allegations against “the first black woman to serve as president of Harvard, have largely originated from conservative activists.”

Freeman said, “Last week, Gay submitted corrections to a pair of papers she wrote as a professional academic in 2001 and 2017. But a CNN analysis of her writings documented other examples of plagiarism from the ’90s, when Gay was studying for her PhD at Harvard. Gay’s 1997 dissertation lifted one paragraph almost verbatim from another source, without citation.”

He added, “A Harvard spokesperson told CNN in a statement Thursday the university reviewed more of her writings and Gay plans to update her 1997 work to correct these additional instances. Harvard said the inadequate citations were regrettable but were not research misconduct.”

He then stated that the development comes after Gay was defended by Harvard’s board after she faced calls to step down over her testimony on campus antisemitism and “The allegations against Gay, who is the first black woman to serve as president of Harvard, have largely originated from conservative activists. But the question persists, is the school holding its president to the same standard as its students?”

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